ments of the epiphyte house. This was accordingly done ; and the plant, as before, was dormant until the 
spring, when scapes again made their appearance, but still with the slender complement of three or four 
buds, several of which formed their seed-vessels without deigning to open their flowers. Some further 
change in the treatment of our perverse plant being now imperatively called for, we kept it, during the whole 
of last summer, in a vinery, where it was occupied, for six months, in completing shoots, which would have 
been hurried over in the epiphyte house in half that time, but these shoots are so exceedingly strong, and 
have so much of that bulky appearance which always portends a vigorous flowering, that we fully expect to 
see the species in the course of the present spring (1839) in all its native splendour. Should this happily 
be the case, the plant will be one of the most shewy of its genus, for nothing can surpass the rich orange 
colour of its flowers, which, according to Mr. Skrnwer, attract the eye at a considerable distance by their 
brilliant hues, and sparkle on the trees like so many stars. 
This plant has also blossomed in the collections of Lord Rotts and Sir Cuartes Lemon, by both of whom 
specimens were obligingly forwarded to us, but these were as deficient as our own in the number of their flowers. The 
specimens from Carclew were accompanied by a drawing, which does no small credit to Mr. Booth, Sir Cuarues’s 
skilful gardener. Our figure was prepared in part from the plant when flowering with us in the spring of 1838, and 
in part from native specimens belonging to the Royal Herbarium of Munich. The habit of this plant is so precisely 
that of Cattleya, that, prior to its blossoming, and when nothing was known of its flowers but their colour, we gave it 
the provisional title of “ Orange Cattleya,”—a title by which it is still known in many collections, and which the lovers 
of that magnificent genus will be sorry to find has been usurped by an Epidendrum.* 
In the Vignette two fine Quesals are to be seen, perched upon the branches of cheirostemon platanifolium, the 
remarkable “hand-plant” of central America. The Quesal is the ¢rogon resplendens of Gould, in whose magnificent 
monograph of the genus it is worthily figured. The plumage is green and scarlet, and exceedingly glossy; the tail 
feathers, in fine specimens, measuring upwards of three feet in length. Mr. Sxriyner has shot, and presented to the 
Natural History Society of Manchester, one of these extraordinary birds, from which, we must not omit to mention, 
the province of Qwesaltenango (where they are exclusively found) derives its name. 
The “hand-plant” is another peculiarity of the country, and is so called from the resemblance of its striking red 
flowers to a hand or claw. 
* * * # *  talos a vertice pulcher ad imos, 
Fiet eritque tuus nummorum millibus octo.—Hor. Zpist, ii. 4. 
* Since the above was written we have received, from the fine collection of Mr. Brocklehurst, of the Fence, near Macclesfield, a flower of 
this species of a larger size and richer colour than any we had previously seen. 
